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The Shingo Model™ captures ten timeless principles that apply to all, regardless of our beliefs or level of understanding. In my experience working with companies over the past 20 years, the principle that is least practiced addresses the idea that value should be flowed and pulled. So what does it mean to flow value? Why is flow considered a principle? How does pull enter the picture and what is its relationship to flow? Finally, why is flow the least practiced of the principles?

Value for customers is maximized when it is created in response to real demand and a continuous and uninterrupted flow. Although one-piece flow is the ideal, often demand is distorted between and within organizations. Waste is anything that disrupts the continuous flow of value.

– Shingo Discover Excellence Course

It seems that since the beginning of time we’ve all learned, “Lean is about continuously developing people and improving processes to create and flow value to customers using the least possible resources required.” Value of products and services is created through a series of work processes, some which create value and some that definitely do not (think of rework, inspection, waiting and expedited shipping). One objective of operational excellence and lean is to eliminate non-value added work to improve the flow of value to our customers, the result of which is shorter delivery cycles and higher levels of quality. Some people describe this as “creating value as efficiently and effectively as possible.”

What does it means to flow value? – Flow is the relentless, steady, continuous forward progress of products, services and information to the customer. In business we create flow by removing the roadblocks that delay or prevent the continual forward motion and throughput of work. The usual suspects are the eight wastes – inventory, defects, motion, transportation, over-production, over-processing, waiting and unused employee creativity; unevenness (variation) – both in the amount of work and in the way work is performed; and overburden of people and machines with more work than can be successfully handled on a sustained basis.

The best way to describe flow is “Make One, Move One,” which is often referred to as one-piece flow, single-piece flow or continuous flow. As the names suggest, creating flow is about making and moving one item at a time (or the smallest batch size possible) through a series of uninterrupted steps, with each step in the process making exactly what is requested by the next step while never knowingly passing poor work forward.

Why is flow a principle? – If you may recall from your Shingo training, a principle is a foundational rule that has an inevitable consequence. Universal and timeless, principles apply equally to all businesses and all people. They are self-evident, meaning they seem obvious once they are identified and explained. In fact, after learning about the Shingo Guiding Principles, many people respond, “Well that’s just common sense!” Most importantly, regardless of our understanding of a principle, we are subject to its consequences.

It is important to note that Mr. Shingo did not create the Shingo Guiding Principles. Principles cannot be invented, rather they are revealed, and the core principles we cover in the four Shingo workshops come from a wide variety of people including Deming, Toyoda, Ohno, Shingo, Fukuda, Imai, Womack, Covey and many others.

Flow is a principle because it governs consequences regardless of our beliefs and understanding of flow. For example, if we don’t honor and observe the principle of flow to the extent that we stop flow in our business, what will be the inevitable consequence? Another way to ask this is, “If we stop shipping products and services our customers are willing to pay for, what will be the result?” Can you say, “We’ll be out business!”? Regardless of opinion or beliefs, this outcome would be the same for any organization: no flow = no value delivered = no sales = no cash = out of business!

What about pull? – For many years, there has been a saying in lean environments that goes like this, “Flow where you can, pull where you can’t.” Pull is a system to control production using a signal to let upstream operations know something is needed downstream. The key to a pull system is that nothing is produced or moved until an authorization signal (kanban) is received from a downstream operation. In a perfect world, we would have a seamless, uninterrupted flow of value-creating activities from order receipt, to order release, to production, to packing, to shipping, to billing, and so on and so on.

In the real world, we often encounter disconnects in the production process that force production to become decoupled. This is where flow stops and pull is introduced. For example, let’s say you run a cheese factory and production is divided into cheese making, aging, cutting, packaging, picking and shipping. In a one-piece flow environment, you would make one and then move one. With cheese, it might make more sense to produce a large batch for a number of good reasons (efficiency, quality, product consistency, etc.).

You accept this principle and know there will be negative consequences if you do not strive to create flow in your factory. You apply the principles, methods and tools of lean to remove the waste, variation and overburden from your production processes, but still do not achieve uninterrupted flow from beginning to end of the value stream. Don’t panic – this situation is encountered when production processes, machinery and physical locations create barriers to flow by decoupling the connection from one part of the value stream to the next.

This is where pull systems can be introduced to coordinate production activities between upstream (think of cheese cutting) and downstream operations (think of packaging) when their connected interdependence has been broken.

Why is flow the least practiced of the principles? – Flow is often not actively pursued because people feel it is more realistic to eliminate waste from work processes, introduce workplace organization through 5S or apply other lean tools. This is a mistake – it turns out that, when you introduce flow into any process, problems (i.e., opportunities to deliver customer value) become vividly apparent and demand immediate attention. Introducing flow can be a bit scary, but it can also sharpen your focus on improvements that will be immediately felt by your customers!

The number of people I meet who tell me, “I don’t have time to make improvements to my work,” amazes me. “It’s all I can do to keep my head above water!” is often the point they drive home. Have you ever heard the voice in your head say something to this effect? A perceived barrier is very real to the person thinking it, and something needs to be done to counteract the paralyzing effect of these thoughts.

A paradigm is a mental map or pattern of how we view the world. Some paradigms help us (e.g., belief in respect for people) while others hurt us (belief that young people don’t care about doing a good job). The “I don’t have time to make improvement part of my daily work” paradigm is particularly pernicious. Here are the thoughts and actions I use to help others and myself shift to a new way of thinking and abandon their old paradigm:

Accept that work processes are either getting better or it is getting worse. Left alone, processes atrophy and decline into a state of disorder due to the inevitable changes that occur and interdependencies along the value stream (think hand offs, conflicting priorities, and lack of visibility). Standard work is not sufficient to stem the tide of process degeneration.

A key reason we don’t have the time to do improvement work is because we are consumed with unplanned This is the work that eats away at whatever discretionary time we think we might have. Primary sources of unplanned work include rework, variation, break downs in the flow of information and materials, overburden, ill-defined work processes, and the unforeseen surprises that stem from conflicting priorities and a lack of transparency of the work (backlog and work in processes).

Daily process improvement is the only way out of this trap! The only way to free up time to do more important (read: process improvement) work is to begin to chip away at the sources of firefighting and rework that are generating your unplanned work.

Start small – it is better to consistently practice your improvement work for 15 minutes a day, than to begin with the intent of spending an hour a day and then abandoning your commitment after a week from failing to find a free hour in your day. Daily practice is the key thing here. Aim for 40 consecutive business days of a new practice to create a habit. We tend to get good at what we consistently think about and do!

Get Visible – there is tremendous influence when we make things visible to our peers. Creating a simple board that shows the date, topic, action taken, and next step(s) can be a game changer. A quick glance at such a board can quickly tell others whether or not daily improvement work is taking place. This step takes courage because you are making your commitment public. It also works because no one likes to make a commitment and not follow through.

Get Kata – you don’t have to discover an effective routine and thought process to support a move towards daily improvement. Mike Rother’s gift to us all is Toyota Kata[i]. This book skillfully explains the activities of daily problem solving, improvement routines that can be practiced and mastered, and the critical coaching element essential for developing people and creating internal problem-solving capacity. If you have not read this book – get it!

What techniques have you used to successfully counter the “I don’t have the time for improvement” paradigm?

Unless your team puts their individual interpretation into lean methods & tools, the transformation simply will not become embedded and quickly fades away. When you look at an old school picture, who is the first person you look for? If you are like most people, it’s you! There is actually part of the brain that lights up when we see an image of ourselves, or an object that sparks our self identify. We feel good when we identify with who we are, especially if we are part of making something better through a challenge – a situation, a relationship, or the unmet needs of another person.

In order for people and teams to take responsibility for the work systems and outcomes of their area, they need to see themselves rooted in the process. This means that their ideas, challenges, hunches, frustrations, and experiences are reflected in the way work processes are improved over time. They have to get their fingerprints on the work processes to care enough to own outcomes. People self-select responsibility for process when they know their opinion matters and what they do and say has a direct influence on how things change.

When workers see their own reflection in the work they do, they identify more deeply and become vested in the outcomes. Any countermeasure aimed at specific problem is a temporary fix at best. The best teams expect that today’s solutions will certainly not last long. When teams understand the fleeting nature of today’s customer demands, they naturally anticipate the need to check for change and adjust work practices as needed. Improving the way work gets done becomes part of doing daily work.

In order to make the right changes, a clear understanding of purpose must be in place. Objective measurements, some of which are under the direct control of the team, are essential here. When those closest to the work align with purpose and own their process, behavior, and the resulting outcomes, they participate and contribute at a heightened level of engagement.

When lean tools (like value stream mapping and A3s) are hoisted onto teams without the opportunity to accept and assume ownership, we disrespectfully dump a load of tools and training on them, and then expect people to connect! This is how the term “accountability” gets such a negative connotation. It’s crazy to hold anyone accountable when they have been given no reason or opportunity to engage in the change. They don’t see themselves in any of it.

Try to see it from their perspective: “I don’t feel my opinion matters, I don’t know whether we are winning or losing, I am not clear on our purpose or how my work contributes towards it.” With that outlook in place, they then consider their manager’s directive, “Hey, get engaged with lean, take ownership, and make improvements!”

Enterprise Transformation

Many organizations reach a point where the acknowledge that the tools and processes that brought them to their current level of success are not sufficient to take them to a higher level of performance. The realization can be very painful and what to do about it even more agonizing.

To ensure your effective transformation, there are key elements that must be in place which include:

Engaging People At A New Level Of Respect, Challenge, and Accountability

Achieving Targeted Results

Intentionally Driving Strategic Alignment

Leveraging And Preserving “Keeper” Components Of Your Organization

Enterprise Excellence requires four key dimensions of performance in order to create and sustain great results with great behavior.

Cultural Enablers – A work environment built on respectful engagement and active participation of leaders, managers, and associates

Continuous Process Improvement – Team-based problem solving, trust, and transparency of problems are common throughout the company

Alignment – People share a common purpose and bring their focus and behavior into line with that purpose to achieve great results

Awesome Results – Measureable and sustainable outcomes are achieved by teams using a common set of principles, systems, and tools

These elements can be found in any great company, and most organizations have some degree of all four elements. An effective approach is to identify where you are strong and where you are weak, and to respond appropriately.

The Transformational Leader

In our experience, Leadership is the most critical element in an effective transformation. So much has been written on the topic of leadership but most of it lacks the specific actions of a leader required to rally, drive, and sustain those new behaviors necessary to create lasting change long after the leader is gone.

There are countless examples of companies who realized significant improvement in their culture, operational results, customer satisfaction, market share, safety, and more. However, when the leader who was at the helm during the makeover retires or moves on, often the changes begin to revert and the “magic” is lost. We have worked with many organizations, which lived through this painful, costly, and disruptive devolution from a culture or excellence back to a culture of mediocrity.

Leaders strive to achieve greater results, stronger alignment, more effective continuous improvement, and greater efficiencies; many believe they need a radical transformation to attain higher levels of performance. Yet leaders must do more than buy in and support the hard work of creative a culture of excellence. The good news is this: there are specific actions and behaviors which drive lasting, effective transformation.

The Key Systems That Drive Lasting Change

Work systems are those procedures, policies, practices, and tools in place to get work done. Systems can either enable the right behaviors or encourage the wrong behaviors. Over the course of 20+ years of experience working with companies to create a culture of excellence, we have identified a collection of key systems that drive the right results with the right behavior. These work systems complement each other to reinforce collaboration, respect, transparency, and accountability to create a culture of performance.

All of our clients benefit from the lessons we have learned over two decades of trial and discovery with a variety of industries. These lessons are embedded in the key work systems we mobilize to crate a foundation from which to cultivate and reinforce and the right behaviors in your people. Actions influence thinking and, in turn, create a new norm. We see culture as the agreed upon way we get things done. As new norms of behavior emerge, a new culture begins to form. With work systems in place designed to reinforce the new norms, sustained transformation takes place!